Refugee Council Criticizes Minister Schuster for Asylum Plans

The Saxon Refugee Council has sharply criticized remarks made by Saxony’s Interior Minister Armin Schuster regarding asylum law. In a statement, the organization accuses the CDU politician of seeking to abolish the individual fundamental right to asylum. Schuster had most recently advocated for a quota-based approach to asylum admissions. The Refugee Council says the issue at hand is the fundamental question of whether protection from persecution will remain an individual right “or whether it will be decided in the future based on politically determined quotas.”

Germany remains bound by applicable law and the EU Convention on Human Rights. “Those who are persecuted do not lose their need for protection simply because a politically determined quota has been reached,” the organization states in a press release. Problems faced by municipalities regarding housing, personnel, and financial resources are matters “of political policy-making.”

Alliance Announces Protest in Front of the Dresden State Parliament

The criticism was triggered by Schuster’s four-point plan on asylum, presented at the end of September. It states that the reception capacity in cities and municipalities must serve as the benchmark for determining the extent to which Germany grants asylum in the future. In response to emerging criticism, Schuster clarified that while asylum must remain enshrined in the Basic Law, it should be granted “within the framework of protection quotas up to a flexible upper limit,” “just as is practiced in Canada, Austria, or Denmark.”

A demonstration has been announced for Thursday afternoon in front of the state parliament in Dresden in response to the interior minister’s remarks. According to the organizers, the demonstration is backed by an alliance comprising representatives of the Green Youth, the Left Youth, the Young Socialists, Mission Lifeline, Parents Against the Right, and the Saxon Refugee Council.